Meeting with Kolmar CEO Sergei Tsivilev

Vladimir Putin met with CEO
of the Kolmar Coal Mining Company Sergei Tsivilev to discuss the company’s interim
results and its development prospects.

February 27, 2018

14:40

The Kremlin, Moscow

Kolmar is a large holding comprising
industrial enterprises engaged in the production and processing of coking coal,
which are based in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

* * *

President of Russia
Vladimir Putin: Mr
Tsivilev, good afternoon,

I have been informed about the successful
development of your company, Kolmar, which operates in Yakutia. You started
from rather modest positions and have made significant progress over a short period.
I know the company also puts great emphasis on its social responsibility programmes.

Kolmar CEO Sergei
Tsivilev: We have
indeed developed two mining and processing facilities over a very short term,
thanks to the huge efforts of our staff. Construction of a terminal in the Khabarovsk
Territory is going very fast. We are developing a maintenance and production
base that will serve as a foundation for the development of not only southern
Yakutia but, to a large extent, of Russia’s Far East as well.

Kolmar is a full-cycle company. We conduct the entire
range of work, from exploration and production to processing and railway
transportation, transhipment in ports and export of our coal. Our company’s
mission is to restore the positions of Russian premium-quality coking coal in the Asia-Pacific market.

Our first priority is the team, because people
have to work in difficult conditions: in the last two months, the temperature
often dropped to minus fifty and below; the equipment broke down, but people continued
working and made all the deadlines. For example, we build a plant in 10 months.
In China, similar plants take at least 12 months.

Therefore, we take good care of our people. We
have built an ice arena and are building a lot of housing. We support sports:
the local ice hockey team, chess, and football. We also support the Solovushka music
company, which gives excellent performances, even at international forums.

We are perfectly aware that our greatest asset
is the people. Whatever we do, whatever new technologies or equipment we have,
they are a dead weight without human capital; that is why human capital comes
first.

With Kolmar CEO Sergei Tsivilev.

Vladimir Putin: What are your plans?

Sergei Tsivilev: We started in 2014 almost from
scratch. Today we already have a mine, a quarry, one operating enrichment
plant, and another one to be completed in a month. Then we will have an enrichment
capacity of eight million tonnes. In 2017, we extracted 4.5 million tonnes of coal. Now we have purchased a lot of equipment, and in 2018, our target is 6.5
million tonnes of coal.

Last year, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
launched the construction of a 12-million enrichment plant and three mines. All
of this should be completed by the end of 2021, and we will then become number
one in Russia for premium coking coal.

Vladimir Putin: How many employees do you have?

Sergei Tsivilev: Today there are 3,000 people. By 2021, 7,000 people will work in southern Yakutia, and another 1,000 at the port – a total of 8,000 people will be employed at the company.